Except for a slight stumble against Boston College, Florida State has put on a dominant performance so far this year, capping it off with a 63-0 beatdown of Maryland. The Terps entered the week at #53 in the TFG rankings -- a far cry from the #25 AP ranking -- and left at #73. The Seminoles have a legitimate shot at the championship this year. Unfortunately for Florida State, (1) Clemson appears to be for real this year, and (2) it's the ACC.

Meanwhile, Oregon eventually put Colorado away -- there was never any doubt of the final outcome -- but the Ducks let the Buffaloes hang around for a half, and even trailed for half of the first quarter. Eventually the points piled up and the inevitable happened, but it's slip-ups like these which cause the computers to occasionally doubt the Ducks.

The theme this year appears to be a lack of balance. Teams not named "Alabama", "Oregon", "Florida State", or "Clemson" can't get it together on both sides of the ball. They're either offense-heavy and defense-light (see: LSU, Baylor, Texas A&M, Miami, Georgia, and Arizona State) or have a weak offense and a stellar defense (see: Florida, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Michigan State, BYU, and Penn State).

That lack of balance won't necessarily hurt you in an attempt to win your conference or division, but to have good success in the bowl season or the championship -- and upcoming playoffs -- teams need to have good balance.

On a side note, apparently South Carolina is ... special. We have them just barely within the top-25, whereas RBA has them just inside the top-five. I have no idea how that's going to play out, but it's something that affects both sides of the ball, not just defense. *cough*

P.S. Dear Ohio State: sneaking in a last-minute touchdown to beat #39 Northwestern by double-digits doesn't make you the second-best team in the nation. Sorry.